Gettysburg Sentinels crafts products from wood reclaimed from the oak Witness Tree that once stood adjacent to the grounds of the Lutheran Seminary at Gettysburg just south of Schmucker Hall. Union Brig. Gen. John Buford Jr occupied the cupola of the building to observe and direct a pivotal moment of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863.
Brig. Gen. John Buford Jr. was born on March 4, 1826, in Woodford County, Kentucky, and raised in Rock Island, Illinois. His father John was a prominent Illinois politician and a political opponent of Abraham Lincoln. The Bufords were of English descent, and the family had a long military tradition.
After attending Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, for one year, Buford was accepted into the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He graduated 16th of 38 cadets and was commissioned a second lieutenant. He served in Texas and against the Sioux, including the Battle of Ash Hollow; served on peacekeeping duty in Bleeding Kansas; and in the Utah War in 1858. He was stationed at Fort Crittenden, Utah, from 1859 to 1861. Buford studied the works of Gen. John Watts de Peyster, who urged that the skirmish line become the new line of battle.
Despite having been born in the divided border state of Kentucky, Buford remained loyal to the United States when the Civil War broke out. During the war, he fought against the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia as part of the Army of the Potomac. His first command was a cavalry brigade under Maj. Gen. John Pope, and he distinguished himself at Second Bull Run in August 1862, where he was wounded. He also saw action at Antietam in September and Stoneman's Raid in spring 1863.
Warrenton, Virginia. Headquarters, Army of the Potomac. Generals, Ambrose E. Burnside, Winfield S. Hancock, Darius N. Couch, Edward Ferrero, Marsena R. Patrick, Orlando B. Willcox, John Cochrane, John Buford and others.
Buford gained his greatest fame — and arguably made his biggest contribution to the Civil War — on July 1, 1863, where on the previous afternoon, he ran into parts of the Army of Northern Virginia just west of Gettysburg. On the evening of June 30, he climbed the cupola at the Lutheran Seminary and saw the campfires of Confederate soldiers in the west. Realizing that the entire Confederate Army would arrive the next day, he wisely assessed the grounds from this vantage point to his rear for the best defensive positions for the Army of the Potomac to occupy upon their arrival for the coming battle. He climbed in the cupola the morning of July 1, according to the Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center, to watch for Union reinforcements.
Having only enough strength to post one man per yard, Buford instructed one of his brigades, under Col. William Gamble, to dismount and impede the Confederate advance on July 1, 1863. Buford’s skillful defensive troop alignments, along with the bravery, dedication and skill of his men, delayed the oncoming Confederates long enough for the Union’s First Corps, under Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, to deploy his infantry to meet the Confederates outside of Gettysburg, thus maintaining the Union footholds on the strategically important defensive for the remainder of the battle. Without Buford’s actions, the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg may have been different.
[left to right]: Bvt. Lt. Col. Myles Keogh, Maj. Gen. John Buford, Capt. Peter Penn Gaskell, Capt. C.W. Wadsworth, Lt. Col. A.P. Morrow.
After a massive three-day battle, Union troops emerged victorious. Later, Buford rendered valuable service to the Army, both in the pursuit of Gen. Robert E. Lee after the Battle of Gettysburg, and in the Bristoe Campaign that autumn, but his health started to fail, possibly from typhoid.
Just before his death at age 37, he received a personal message from President Abraham Lincoln, promoting him to major general of volunteers in recognition of his leadership at Gettysburg. Upon receiving this promotion on his deathbed, he replied simply, “It’s too late, now I wish I could live.”
In a unique excursion, visitors to the Seminary Ridge Museum & Education Center can purchase tickets to tour the cupola: Experiences — Seminary Ridge Museum and view Gettysburg from the vantage point as Buford did in 1863.